Tuesday, September 22, 2009

A Solution to Alzheimer's?

I was thrilled to read today that they're sending a gene therapy for Alzheimer's to human trial.

I've worked as a maintenance man in a nursing home with an Alzheimer's wing. What a devastating disease! I remember sitting and talking with one man who had a few hours of clear thinking one day while I was at work. He wept profusely, telling me that he was aware of the great trouble he put his wife through when she visited.

My wife's grandmother had Alzheimer's, though she was taken care of by my wife's parents and didn't have to go to a nursing home until the very end. It will be awesome if this treatment works.

The trial is a full-fledged double-blind, placebo-controlled study. Those terms are explained at the site of the original article.

What Does This Have to Do with Evolution?



DNA is amazing. It is a code that is read by every living cell. (Yes, I know I write that over and over again.)

Every one!

Change the programming, and you can get the cell to do just about anything that any other cell does. They've been working on curing Spinal Muscular Atrophy with gene therapy. That's not in human trial, but in mice they included a gene for the production of a jellyfish's green fluorescent protein so they could track the new cells.

It was mildly effective, producing new cells and extending the life of mice with the disease by 40%.

Microevolution vs. Macroevolution



These sorts of tests make it clear that the imaginary micro/macro evolution line is just that, imaginary. Bacteria and yeast can use human genes to make insulin. Most insulin in the U.S. is produced that way.

Scientists are finding more and more ways to produce stem cells. These are not the original stem cells that are in umbilical cords and can become any cell in the body. These are "middle-range" cells, called pluripotent (pluri-=many, potent=power or ability) cells, that can become, for example, any kind of blood or brain cell.

As they become better at this, it will not be long before they will be able to clone stem cells into just about any form of life they want just by borrowing genes and chromosomes from that life-form. At that point, any last doubts about the reality of our evolutionary past will be erased, even among the staunchest creationists.

God Proves Creation; Creation Does Not Prove God



It is the existence of God that proves the universe is created, not vice versa. Creation testifies of the attributes of God, not of the existence of God (Rom. 1:19-20).

God has ways of making himself known. Abraham believed God was Creator because God appeared to him. Moses believed God was Creator because God spoke to him and worked miracles on his behalf.

I believe God is Creator because he spoke to me, showed me that Jesus was the Son of God, and then saved me with grace, Spirit, and power from heaven.

The world will believe God is Creator when we obey Jesus Christ.

Not when we twist evidence and use bad logic to try and convince them that the universe must be created.

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